The invention relates to an apparatus for splitting, cleaning and skinning poultry gizzards and more in particular to an apparatus of this kind having an endless transport chain, which runs over two sprocket wheels and is provided with protrusions for pushing and transporting the gizzards from a supply chute or hopper near one of the sprocket wheels, past a rotating knife for cutting open the gizzards, a spreading bar for folding upon the split gizzards, and a cleaning means for removing the contents of the gizzards, and for finally delivering the the split and spread gizzards to a set of peeling rolls near the other sprocket wheel, for removing the lining or skin from the gizzards, and further having means which bring the gizzards into the desired position for being received by the transport chain and make sure that the split gizzards are taken from the chain and are pressed onto the peeling rolls in such manner, that the skin will be grasped by the peeling rolls.
The various known apparatusses for splitting and peeling gizzards all comprise a rotating knife for cutting open the gizzards, peeling rolls for removing the skin from the cut open gizzards and transport means for moving the gizzards past the knife to the peeling rolls. These transport means may consist of chains, belts or augers.
The main problem with apparatusses of this kind is to correctly position the gizzards for splitting and for pulling out the skin. The gizzards are somwhat almond shaped and must be moved past the knife in such manner, that they are cut open lengthwise in one of the narrow sides and to such depth, that the gizzard halves remain interconnected but may be spread so far apart that the whole skin is exposed. If the gizzards are cut open in a different position recessed folds may remain in the skin when the gizzards are spread, so that the skin cannot be removed completely by the peeling rolls. Before removal of the skin the gizzards must be loosened from the transport means and pressed with the inner surface onto the peeling rolls, so that the skin may be grasped by the peeling rolls and torn loose.
It has been proposed to leave the remaining entrails attached to the gizzards so that the weight thereof may by used to bring the gizzards into the right position for receipt by the transport means. This however may be undesirable for hygienic reasons and has the disadvantage that the gizzards must be processed immediately after evisceration of the fowl and on the same spot.
It has also been proposed to leave only the stomach attached to the gizzards for positioning the gizzards and also to be able to pull the split gizzards onto the peeling rolls by means of the stomachs. This however has the disadvantage that the stomachs must be removed from the gizzards after the skinning thereof, which is difficult and makes the apparatus more complicated.
Various mechanical means have been proposed for positioning the gizzards relative to the knife and/or for pressing the gizzards onto the peeling rolls. In most cases these means are rather complicated which makes the apparatus vulnerable and expensive. It has further been proposed to position the gizzards by means of vacuum or jets of water. The use of vacuum has the disadvantage that vacuum pipes are easily blocked by remnants of the gizzards' contents after which the apparatus will not function right and also always may cause aerosol contamination. The use of water, which more often than not is also used for removing the contents of the gizzards, should be avoided as much as possible, because of the large costs of a large water consumption and the high costs of purification of waste water.